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FROM THE CEO

Did we really learn it all in kindergarten?

Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, contains a great many lessons on ethics and morality. This has certainly been true for my family.

I remember my 6-year-old daughter collapsing in a heap and sobbing one day after school because a classmate had broken all her new crayons. “It’s just not right,” she wailed. “She shouldn’t have done that!” I also remember the time my 8-year-old son had his TV and video-game privileges revoked for his part in trashing and then refusing to help clean up the playroom at his friend’s house. Stomping all the way home and to his room, he muttered, “It’s just not fair; it’s just not fair!”

Then there was violation of House Rule No. 3: No playing basketball in the house. Of course they did, this time at ages 5 and 12, resulting in two broken dishes that they repaired with Scotch tape and carefully returned to the hutch, hoping I wouldn’t notice. By that time, however, some degree of ethics and morality had sunken in. When I arrived home, they were contrite and apologetic.

So there they are, some of Fulghum’s ethical lessons:

1) Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

2) Clean up your own mess.

3) Play fair.

4) Share everything.

5) Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody and,

6) maybe, even put things back where you found them with the Scotch tape solution (Fulghum, 2004).

Ethics and morality are the focus of much scientific study and debate. Simply put, morality involves distinguishing between right and wrong and applying principles of goodness and rightness. Ethics involves the system and standard for applying and adhering to these moral principles in conduct and character. Ethics and morality are complementary and synergistic concepts that guide our actions, support our decisions about rightness, and reinforce and cultivate values (American Nurses Association, 2001).

Doing the right thing and doing things right are basic mandates of being ethical. Personally and professionally, we each subscribe to a set of moral principles and ethical standards that define who we are and how we ought to behave.

Professionally, these standards and principles are codified to provide a clearer, deeper understanding of what is expected of us in the discharge of our duties. Attorneys, accountants, physicians, pharmacists, engineers and business executives all have professional codes of ethics.

The ethics code for nursing has its roots in The Nightingale Pledge. In making this pledge, a nurse commits to “faithfully practice” her profession in the following ways:

1) maintain the highest standards and practices;

2) hold in confidence all personal matters;

3) be devoted to the welfare of patients, family and community;

4) fulfill the rights and privileges as a good citizen;

5) increase knowledge and skill; and

6) be active in safeguarding and promoting the health and happiness of mankind (The Nightingale Pledge, 2001).

To make this pledge a living reality, the International Council of Nurses (ICN), national nursing associations and other organizations have adopted its guiding principles and values in their codes of ethics.

Ethics and morality are foundational to the profession of nursing. The underpinnings of what it means to be a nurse, they dictate practice decisions and behavior.

This brings me back to Fulghum’s ethical lessons—the ones we learned in kindergarten. To do the right thing by doing things right, nurses:

Share knowledge, expertise and skill (share everything)

Provide unrestricted care (play fair)

Stimulate inquiry about people’s health and welfare (look and wonder)

Maintain standards of personal health and professional conduct (live a balanced life)

Share responsibility for sustaining the natural and work environment (clean up your own mess)

Provide care compatible with people’s safety, dignity and rights (don’t hit [hurt] people)

So, maybe all we really do need to know about rightness did come from kindergarten. RNL

Nancy Dickenson-Hazard, RN, MSN, FAAN

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References:

American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics for nurses. Retrieved August 10, 2005, from Nursing World.

Fulghum, R. (2004). All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. New York: Random House.

The Nightingale pledge (2001). Retrieved August 10, 2005.